profile avatar

The title indicates the image functions as a portrait or identifying motif, possibly used in a biographical or profile context rather than as a discrete exhibition piece. Profile-view portraiture sits at an angle to the historical [bijin-ga](/glossary/bijin-ga) tradition, which more commonly favoured three-quarter views to display the curve of the neck and the arrangement of hair ornaments; contemporary mokuhanga artists working in the UK, Mitchell among them, routinely treat the figure outside these conventions, building portraits from personal or contemporary reference. The print would have been produced through carved blocks on [washi](/glossary/washi), with colour built up across multiple impressions and registered via kentō, the flat fields and soft transitions characteristic of [baren](/glossary/baren)-pressed water-based pigment. The piece belongs to the broader body of work from which Mitchell's IMC 2024 Echizen submission was drawn for the Europe and Africa regional exhibition.